In truth, he doesn't really expect her to not doubt his advances.

If he were to one day gain a mysterious follower, he might've called the cops already. He was honestly amazed at how resilient Shuuya was.

So he knows that the time where he'd be questioned would come eventually, but he didn't expect that she'd ask all the wrong questions.

The only question that was acceptable enough— "Why did you confess to me back then?"

Just remembering her confused, scrunched-up face, makes Yuma want to punch himself.

It was true that it was a mistake on his part. 

***

Yuma opened his eyes.

The sight of his small dilapidated bedroom wall was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was replaced with a classroom.

A school classroom?

Somewhere not fitting for him to be present in.

It was bright out outside, the sun's rays gently kissed the nearest objects it could reach. The few students inside were going on about their individual businesses, not minding him one bit. But why?

Yuma frowns.

The last thing he could remember was him downing several sleeping pills with alcohol. He couldn't remember what happened next.

"Yuma?"

He looks up.

The sight of the other man makes his blood run cold.

"Y-Yuji?"

His friend...that was supposed to be dead by now.

"Why are you alive?" he could only whisper in disbelief.

"What do you mean? You want me dead?" The other man laughs loudly while smacking him upside the head.

The pain was too real.

As he returned to look at the man in front of him with a face that was youthful, free of wrinkled skin at the corner of his eyes and hollowed cheeks befitting of a sick person, he had finally realized what was wrong.

"Is this a realistic dream?" Yuma asks himself out loud. "Am I going insane?"

Meanwhile, the other guy could only frown at him and cross his arms to his chest.

"You're just hungry, dude. Just get something to eat."

Yuma looks out of the door. Several students were walking in the hallway.

"...what date is it?" he asks.

"20th of April?"

"Year?"

"...2018?"

At the strange growing silence of his friend, Yuji could only give him a concerned look. 

"What's up? You're acting weird."

"..."

He didn't expect him to run outside in a haste, as if he was being chased.

"O-oi! There's plenty food for everyone, why the rush!!"

***

April 20, 2018.

So does this mean that he was only at the last year of high school?

His feet were carrying him to nowhere fast, his heart beating from his chest was slowly engulfing his hearing—making him deaf to the complaints he got whenever he bumped into someone else.

So does this mean...she's also here?

Dream or not, he doesn't want to think anymore. He just wanted to see her. Even if it was only a delusion his brain formed in grounds of desperation, he knew that the only thing that he should do right now was to meet her.

He needs to meet her.

And as if fate was really on his side just for once,

he saw her.

In his school's black and white uniform for women, talking with her friends at a table.

She looked so happy. Her eyes curved into crescent moons, full of light.

An image of a young girl full of hopes and dreams. A girl that was yet to be tainted and ruined by life, yet to be formed into a lifeless doll akin to a corpse.

A sight that he was never able to see in his life.

He was shaking. He knew for sure that he was shaking so much, his knees threatened to make him collapse to the ground.

What to do?

She was right there in front of him.

What should I do?

If he were to answer honestly, he wanted nothing else but to protect her.

He would help her in every tribulation she were to encounter. Comfort her in her lowest. Support her in whatever as long as it was in his ability.

And before he knew it, he was already in front of her, bowing with his hand stretched towards her, like a worshipper.

"Honda Shuuya, please go out with me."

If they were to be a couple in this instant, he doesn't need to explain his actions. It would be perfectly fine to act the way he'll do.

"...I'm sorry, but I don't think you and I could work."

Yuma blinks. And his widened eyes slowly closed.

How could he forget?

Ever since, she was the kind of person to be wary. Like a cat in an alleyway that hisses once you reach out to pet them, even though you meant no harm.

"I see." it was his mistake. Now he knows just how much of a failure he is.

But he wouldn't let himself fail. No, not this time.

"Can we be friends instead?"

An improvisation. In this way, he would still be able to keep close contact with her. With their senpai-kouhai relationship, interactions are doomed to lessen unless one were a couple. But nobody said anything about a senpai-kouhai being friends! 

And in actuality, it was better this way. How dare he try to enter an intimate relationship with her when he doesn't deserve it? He...wasn't worthy.

"Don't be afraid to depend on me." he says sincerely. If he could only bare his heart for her to see, he'll do it in a heartbeat. 

And perhaps this sincerity of his reached her, she finally accepts his outstretched hand with a sigh.

"Fine."

Her hand was small and tender. It was warm against his cold palm. It was so warm, it even spread and reached to his chest.

A euphoric feeling.

"Thank you."

He smiles at her.

Even if she was looking at him with a face that befitted that of a stranger, he was content.

It was as if the shackles bound to him were finally broken, freeing him.

When he returned to the classroom, he even saw the young face of his brother and his other friends. His classmates, that he didn't have the chance to meet anymore after all these years.

He finally settles to his seat that was at the corner of the classroom.

He was back.

He doesn't know how, he doesn't know anything. He doesn't even know if he deserves any of these.

—but he was given the chance to set things right.

"Shuuya..."

Warm tears finally escaped his eyes, and like a broken dam, he couldn't even stop the flowing until he sobs himself into a wretched mess.

His heart ached so much he couldn't breathe, but not in a way that it does ever since her death.

It was the delightful kind of heartache.